Vladimir Putin warns America to obey international law over Syria

The US must obey international law and not strike Syria without the approval
of the United Nations, Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday as he used the
editorial pages of the New York Times to make his own personal address to
the American people.

"The law is still the law, and we must follow it whether we like it or not," scolded the Russian president in a 1,000-word article in the New York Times that challenged notions of US "exceptionalism" - the idea that its unique institutions and democratic values grant America the moral right to intervene in world affairs.

Mr Putin accused America of pursuing foreign policy by "brute force" and said it had failed in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya.

He also repeated his claim that the Syrian rebels, not the Assad regime, were responsible for the chemical weapons attack in Damascus and warned that any unilateral military strike could trigger the collapse of the UN and "unleash a new wave of terrorism".

The article published on the eve of Thursday's exploratory US-Russia talks in Geneva was met with indignation from leaders of both US political parties who took exception to being lectured to by a man with Mr Putin's record on human rights and military intervention in Chechnya.

Sen. John McCain, the hawkish Republican senator who has called for US intervention in Syria, said the article was "an insult to the intelligence of every American", while Sen. Robert Menendez, the chair of the Senate foreign relations committee said he had "almost wanted to vomit" after reading it.

Leon Panetta, the former US defence secretary, warned that Mr Putin was trying to "weaken the United States" as it tried to resolve the Syria crisis. "President Putin should be the last person to lecture the United States about our human values and our human rights and what we stand for," he added.

However Mr Putin used the article to reply directly to Barack Obama's address to the nation on Tuesday night and play on the reluctance of the US public to get involved in another Middle Eastern conflict.

"It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America's long-term interest? I doubt it," wrote Mr Putin, arguing that after Iraq America was no longer seen as model of democracy.

He repeated Moscow's claim – likely to be undermined by a UN inspectors report to be delivered next week – that it was Syrian rebels who fired chemical weapons on August 21, even though the rockets came from government-controlled territory and were of a type not known to be possessed by rebel forces.

"There is every reason to believe it was used not by the Syrian Army, but by opposition forces, to provoke intervention by their powerful foreign patrons, who would be siding with the fundamentalists," he wrote.

The Russian president said a US-led strike could undermine international efforts to resolve Iran's nuclear ambitions, the Middle East peace process and destabilise North Africa.

Mr Putin concluded by saying that his visibly frosty relationship with Mr Obama was now "marked by growing trust" but that he fundamentally disagreed with the notion of American exceptionalism espoused by the US president on Tuesday night.

"There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy," he said, "Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord's blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal."

Foreign policy analysts said that Mr Putin's triumphalist tone reflected the weakness of Mr Obama's position having failed to convince Congress to back him over his request to authorise military strikes in Syria.

"One gets the sense vodka and caviar are flowing heavily these days [in the Kremlin]," said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, said on MSNBC, "This is his moment after decades of Russian humiliation to remind everyone Russia is back."

Mr Obama ignored questions on the article as he spoke to reporters before a cabinet meeting in Washington yesterday, while White House officials declined to comment publicly but contended that the article showed how invested Mr Putin now was in the talks in Geneva.